Blina Minerals Nl Asx Announcement
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Blina Option Agreement to acquire Madacu Resources Pty Ltd BLINA MINERALS NL and the right to Farm-In to the Maintirano Copper Exploration Project in Madagascar ASX ANNOUNCEMENT • Blina Minerals NL (“Blina”) to commence exploration on the Maintirano Copper Project on a strategic landholding of 20 exploration 15 November 2018 licences covering an area of 1,658km2 in western Madagascar under a Binding Option Agreement with Madacu Resources Pty Ltd (“Madacu”). • Over 30 copper occurrences, some mined on artisanal-scale are Board: known and distributed throughout Cretaceous basalts as secondary copper carbonates and native copper in vesicles and porous zones such David Porter as flow top breccias and steeply dipping veins which contain secondary Non-Executive Director copper carbonates, chalcocite and cuprite. Brett Fraser Non-Executive Chairman • High grade copper mineralisation was evident in many of the 54 rock chip samples collected by Blina and Madacu with one value >11% Jay Stephenson Cu. Non-Executive Director • Observed copper mineralisation is thought to have formed during rifting associated with the break-up of the supercontinent Capital Structure: Gondwanaland in the upper Cretaceous and bears similar structural setting and style of mineralisation as the Keweenaw Copper Province in 4.314 Billion Shares ** Michigan, USA where 11 billion pounds of refined copper from ores grading between 1.5% and 3.0% copper was produced over a period of 904 Million Options 100 years*. @ 0.17c exp 31/10/2020 • Blina has undertaken due diligence in the field and will continue exploration in the next month with the mobilisation of a geophysical crew to undertake surveys over the known copper occurrences to ASX Code: BDI determine the dimensions of the mineralisation and whether primary zones exist at depth. *Bornhorst, T.J. and Barron, R.J. (2011). Copper deposits of the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In, The Geological Society of America, Field Guide 24. **Not including the issue of the 180 million shares pursuant to the Agreement. 1 | P a g e Blina Minerals NL (“Blina”, ASX: BDI) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a Binding Option Agreement with Madacu Resources Pty Ltd (“Madacu”) to explore for copper in Madagascar (“Agreement”). The exploration-stage project has in excess of 30 known copper occurrences identified at surface in an un-explored province. Initially Blina will issue 180 million fully paid ordinary shares in the Company and reimburse $200,000 of field expenses to Madacu for an option to explore the tenements; these shares will be issued out of the Company’s placement capacity pursuant to ASX Listing Rule 7.1. A further issue of 120 million fully paid ordinary shares is dependent upon successful delineation of at least 4 drill targets to Blina’s absolute satisfaction. There is a final payment of 200 million shares to Madacu on the successful delineation of a minimum Indicated Resource in accordance with JORC 2012 Edition Guidelines of 10 million tonnes at a grade of greater than 1.5% copper and completing Stage 1 (as defined on page 9, below). The issue of these additional consideration shares will be subject to approval of the Company’s shareholders, which will be obtained at the time these milestones are reached. Completion and the issue of any consideration under the Agreement is otherwise subject to the ASX Listing Rules, BDI obtaining any necessary shareholder approvals and the completion of satisfactory due diligence. Blina will assume funding requirements for exploration and payments to local vendors during the life of the Agreement. Project Overview Figure 1: Location of the Maintirano Copper project The Maintirano Copper Project is located within a 100km radius of Maintirano, a coastal town lying 350km west-northwest of Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar (Fig. 1). Madacu Resources has concluded legally enforceable agreements to explore over an area of 1,658 square kilometres with a local company, Mada Hanra SARL (Fig. 2). The majority of known copper occurrences in the district which number in excess of 30 are on tenements held by Mada Hanra. 2 | P a g e The strategic land holding covers low-sulphide, epithermal copper mineralisation hosted in flood basalts which erupted during periods of continental rifting associated with the break-up of the supercontinent Gondwana during the Cretaceous period. Copper mineralisation is predominantly associated with vesicular basalt tops occurring as malachite and minor azurite, but also cuprite (copper oxide), native copper and minor covellite (copper sulphide). There is also copper mineralisation in steeply dipping veins some of which, from Madacu’s field investigations, potentially extend over at least 350 metres. The copper occurrences have been mined on a small-scale and Madacu estimates that no more than several thousands of tonnes of ore were extracted. The mineralisation has marked similarities with the major copper occurrences formerly mined in the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan USA*. There native copper occurred within vesicular flow tops of basalts and in other porous zones such as flow top breccias and cross cutting faults and fractures and was mined for over 100 years producing over 11 billion lbs of refined copper from ores grading between 1.5% and 3% copper (roughly of the order of 200 million tonnes of ore at 2% copper). The Keweenaw basalts are also flood basalts resulting from continental rifting*. While previously there has been no systematic evaluation previously of the potential for substantial copper mineralisation in the district, there appears to be potential for 3 target styles within the project area: 1. Copper carbonate mineralisation within the vesicular basalts and other porous zones such as flow top breccias. 2. Native copper or sulphide mineralisation in the vesicular basalts at depth beneath the weathered zone (as developed in the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan). 3. Copper sulphides or native copper in steeply dipping fault or fracture zones. Madagascar – a Rediscovered Mining Destination Madagascar contains a large variety of minerals in commercial volumes, including aluminium, beryllium, chromium, coal, cobalt, copper, gas, gemstones (including emerald, ruby and sapphire), gold, graphite, iron, limestone, nickel, niobium, petroleum, platinum, rare earth elements, titanium and uranium. Besides being a leading producer of mica, it also exports significant quantities of graphite, nickel, cobalt and chromium. Madagascar is also a recognised gold producer dominated currently however by artisanal activity in various parts of the country. Despite its huge potential, Madagascar is underexplored due to various historical political and economic reasons. However, Madagascar attracted a reasonable amount of exploration interest and resulted in the identification and development of a number of major projects including Rio Tinto, and Sherritt with the QMM minerals sands project and the Ambatovy nickel and cobalt projects respectively, both global tier one deposits. Additionally, a number of ASX-listed entities are pursuing successfully projects in Madagascar including Bass Metals, Cougar and Black Earth. *Bornhorst, T.J. and Barron, R.J. (2011). Copper deposits of the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In, The Geological Society of America, Field Guide 24. 3 | P a g e Figure 2: Madacu Resources tenements under Agreement with Mada Hanra. Geological Setting The regional geological setting of Madagascar has a bearing on the copper mineralisation (Fig.3). Madagascar was formerly attached to the African continent as part of the Gondwana supercontinent. The supercontinent broke up during the mid- Jurassic to mid-Cretaceous. Madagascar was first disconnected from the Kenya- Somalia part of the African continent during the Middle to Upper Jurassic by rifting within what is now the Mozambique Channel. Later, during the Upper Cretaceous, a new dislocation took place between lndia and Madagascar. There were several volcanic episodes due to rifting which resulted in Figure 3: Simplified regional geology. The red rock units are the eruption of extensive basalt lavas, Cretaceous basalts with which the copper mineralisation is principally during the Upper Cretaceous, associated. 4 | P a g e when Madagascar was ultimately separated from India. The resulting flood basalts are believed to have covered the entire surface of the island. Remnants of the volcanic pile are now preserved in the Mesozoic sedimentary basins of the west coast, namely the Morandava Basin, the Majunga Basin. The Maintirano copper project area is located on these Cretaceous flood basalts within the Majanga Basin (Fig. 4). Figure 4: Flat topped hills reflecting the tops of sub horizontal basalt lava flows The area contains abundant showings of secondary copper mineralisation (see Figures 5 and 6). All copper occurrences observed and recorded in the area lie within mapped Cretaceous basalt. In most occurrences observed the copper mineralisation occurs as green secondary copper minerals, including malachite (copper carbonate), chrysocolla (copper silicate) with minor azurite. Cuprite (copper oxide) is recorded in several occurrences. Traces of native copper occur and some quite large native copper specimens (4 cm diameter), reportedly collected from the area, were observed. In most of the occurrences observed the copper mineralisation lies within sub horizontal vesicular zones within the basalts, very likely representing the tops of individual lava flows. In two occurrences observed,